1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a pneumatic fender management system, more specifically, a pneumatic fender management system which, if a pressure sensor is attached later to a pneumatic fender, establishes a reliable and ready correspondence between the two components, and provides safety ensuring even though an inappropriate pressure sensor is attached to the pneumatic fender.
2. Background Information
Conventionally, in mooring a ship at a quay or mooring ships alongside, a pneumatic fender is mounted on a quay wall or a side of a ship, for preventing damage to the ship body and the quay wall. The pneumatic fender is formed by charging compressed air into an approximately barrel-shaped hollow structure made of an elastic material such as rubber to buffer impact in mooring a ship at a quay or mooring ships alongside by pneumatic pressure. Accordingly, it is needed that the pneumatic fender is configured so as to be capable of being checked if a proper pneumatic pressure is constantly maintained therein.
For example, JP-A-60-46438 suggests an inner pressure detection device in which a pneumatic pressure is detected by a pressure sensor attached to the inside of a pneumatic fender, and a detected value is constantly transmitted in a wireless manner to the outside and displayed on a receiver.
In recent years, mainly from the viewpoint of quality control and safety ensuring, there has been demand that each individual pneumatic fender is provided with an identification system for ready identification of the pneumatic fender (see ISO17357 entitled “Ships and marine technology—High-pressure floating pneumatic rubber fenders”). Accordingly, when each individual pneumatic fender can be identified, it is possible to control a pneumatic pressure more accurately by attaching a pressure sensor suitable for specifications of the pneumatic fender.
However, setting aside the case where a pressure sensor is attached to a pneumatic fender at the time of manufacture, if a pressure sensor is attached later to an existing pneumatic fender or a pressure sensor is replaced, there is the possibility that an inappropriate pressure sensor is attached to the pneumatic fender. At occurrence of such a situation, no appropriate feedback may be provided to a user due to malfunction of the pressure sensor, which leads to damage to the ship due to excessive compression of the pneumatic fender, burst of the pneumatic fender due to excessive air supply, and the like. Accordingly, it is desired to realize a management system which establishes a reliable and ready correspondence between a pneumatic fender and a pressure sensor and provides safety ensuring.